Men's Swimming and Diving Hosts Columbia in First Home Meet of 2010-11

Greg Roop helped the Crimson to wins over Cornell and Dartmouth last weekend (David Silverman).

Storyline
The Harvard men's swimming and diving team hosts the first of three home meets this season as it welcomes league foe Columbia to Blodgett Pool Friday, Nov. 19. Both teams come into the meet with two league wins to their credit.

Last Time Out
Harvard captured a pair of lopsided victories, taking 13 event titles en route to wins over Cornell and host Dartmouth, Saturday at Karl Michael Pool. The Crimson took down the Big Red by a score of 216-82 and downed the Big Green, 222-78, in its home pool.

Harvard set the tone early, taking the top two spots in the first swimming event of the day. The 200-yard medley relay team of Jack Pretto, Owen Wurzbacher, Gregory Roop and Nicholas DuCille took first with a time of 1:33.94 and the quartet of Robert Newell, Justin Davidson, Niall Janney and Oliver Lee was less than a second behind with a runner-up time of 1:34.52. Rookie Spenser Goodman led a trio of Harvard freshmen atop the 200 freestyle results, taking the event in a time of 1:40.70 with classmates Chris Satterthwaite (1:40.88) and Wes Stearns (1:41.99) right on his tail. Newell (51.22) and Pretto (51.25) finished 1-2 in the 100 backstroke, and Wurzbacher and Janney earned event wins in the 100 breaststroke and 200 butterfly, respectively. Freshman Oliver Lee earned his first collegiate event win with a time of 20.92 in the 50 free. Sophomore diver Michael Stanton captured the one-meter competition and the Crimson capped the day with a win in the 400 free relay.

Scouting the Lions
Columbia opened its 2010-11 schedule in fine style, taking down Penn, 198.5-101.5, last Friday at home and defeated Yale, 177-122, Saturday in New Haven, Conn. Senior co-captain Adam Powell had a stellar meet against the Quakers, earning wins in the 50 and 100 free races and setting pool records in both events. Rookie Eric Traub won the 200 free and 200 individual medley, and senior diver David Levkoff won the one-meter diving competition. Powell captured both sprint free events against Yale the following day and was joined by sophomore diver Jason Collazo as a multi-event winner, as Collazo won both boards against the Bulldogs. The win Saturday marked the first time the Lions have beaten the Bulldogs in their home pool in nearly two decades.

National Attention
This year's Harvard men's swimming and diving recruiting class has been ranked the No. 20 incoming class in the nation by CollegeSwimming.com, the site announced Wednesday. CollegeSwimming.com ranks the top 25 recruiting classes in the nation, and Harvard is the only institution in both the Ivy League and the Northeast region to be recognized by the site. The Crimson welcomes a freshman class of 11 swimmers and divers to a team that captured second place at the Ivy League Championships last season.